1. Repository Platforms for Research Data Interest Group: Requirements, Gaps, Capabilities, and Progress
Robert R. Downs1, 1
NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) The Earth Institute, Columbia University
2018 RDA Chairs Meeting
Gaithersburg, Maryland
Session: IG and WG Presentations
Friday, 12 January :00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Copyright The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York.

2. Purpose
Research data repositories are at the heart of data sharing as they provide platforms to acquire, store, archive, publish, curate, preserve, and access data. Thus, the major goal of the Repository Platforms for Research Data (RPRD) Interest Group (IG) is to improve the usability and technical capabilities of repository platforms. To achieve this, the RPRD IG invites members of the research data community to collect usage experiences, define requirements, evaluate implementations, and identify limitations of current solutions in a cooperation of repository users, managers, providers, and developers. Possible outputs of our efforts might be recommendations, knowledge collections, or new working groups to investigate identified issues.

3. Accomplishments
Matrix of use cases and functional requirements for research data repository platforms
Reviewed by RPRD IG & RDA; Published as RDA Endorsed Recommendations in November 2016
RDA P9 Repository Platform Experiences and Identified Gaps
Represented instances of operational repositories: Conquaire; figshare; Dendro, CKAN and EUDAT; Fedora with Vital; Hydra & RDM in Europe
RDA P10 Repositories Addressing Requirements and Gaps
Represented repository platforms: Islandora, Fedora, and Samvera; Dataverse; KIT DM; Dash
Research Data Repositories Interoperability WG
Research Data Repository Interoperability Primer and Recommendations

4. Excerpt from the Matrix of Use Cases and Functional Requirements for Research Data Repository Platforms

5. Accomplishments Continued: Identified Gaps in Repository Capabilities
Ingest
Automation and archival workflows, including pre-ingest services, format and integrity verification, and post-ingest routine integrity verification; capabilities for enhancing metadata and capturing provenance for both external and internal audiences; and ingest of large or complex data sets (with many files) and external administration (ingest, reports, etc.).
Operations
Simple customization of submission form metadata and user interfaces for access, visualization, and download; adding to previously-archived data and versioning capabilities; security for publicly accessible content and capabilities for restricting access to confidential data; regular enhancements of tested updates, turn-key capabilities (out-of-the-box), and reduced need for programming (technological learning); integration with organization’s website, external tools, such as metadata catalogs, and other services; and opportunities for local support worldwide.
Sustainability
Provision of hosted services and redundant failover and backup capabilities; low costs and/or subscription fees; and an efficient path for transferring content to future systems (on same or competing platforms).

6. Islandora, Fedora, and Samvera Dataverse KIT DM Dash
Accomplishments Continued: Repository Developers Described How they Meet Gaps
Developer Presentations at RDA 10 to describe how their platforms meet the identified gaps
Islandora, Fedora, and Samvera
Dataverse
KIT DM
Dash

7. Accomplishments Continued: Recent
Chairs Telecon Nov 2017
Planning for IG telecon and for RDA P11
IG Telecon Dec 2017
Planning for RDA P11
IG Session Proposal Submitted Dec 2017
WG Report and launch of new WGs or activities

8. Need to initiate new WGs or activities Recent rotation of IG Co-Chairs
Issues and Challenges
Need to initiate new WGs or activities
Recent rotation of IG Co-Chairs
1 new Co-Chair elected 15 months ago
2 new Co-Chairs elected 8 months ago

9. Are Modifications Needed to Address Issues and Challenges?
Need ways to get more people involved in leadership roles for WGs and activities

10. Research Data Repository Interoperability WG will finish soon
Plans for next 12 months
Research Data Repository Interoperability WG will finish soon
Report on Research Data Repository Interoperability WG
Planning to encourage launches of new Working Groups and other activities at RDA P11, including the following ideas
Meeting requirements in matrix (policy support, workflows, annotation…)
Probing gaps in repository capabilities
Review of existing and emergent repository platforms
Roster of current repository platforms, including hosted solutions
List of references and links to information about current repository platforms
High level overview of repository systems

11. Coordination with other groups
Research Data Repository Interoperability WG
Part of Joint Session Proposal for P11 with
IG Agricultural Data (IGAD)
IG Data Discovery Paradigms
IG ELIXIR Bridging Force
WG BioSharing Registry: connecting data policies, standards & databases in life sciences

12. Fit with RDA Mission
Fit with Vision: the major goal of the Repository Platforms for Research Data (RPRD) Interest Group (IG) is to improve the usability and technical capabilities of repository platforms to enable openly sharing of data across technologies, disciplines, and countries
Fit with Mission: the RPRD IG invites members of the research data community to collect usage experiences, define requirements, evaluate implementations, and identify limitations of current solutions in a cooperation of repository users, managers, providers, and developers to build the social and technical bridges that enable open sharing of data.